😲
|
|
|
OMG!
THIS SOUNDS LIKE A BAD IDEA: Since SpaceX began launching Starlink satellites in 2019, astronomers have grown increasingly alarmed. It's almost impossible now to take a deep-sky image without satellite streaks. The megaconstellation numbers nearly 11,000 functioning satellites, and SpaceX launched another 1,589 during the first half of 2026 alone.
Soon, Starlink may be the least of their worries.
Last week, the FCC authorized Reflect Orbital Inc. to launch a huge space mirror named “Eärendil-1.” From an orbit about 625 km high, it will cast a moving, 5-km-wide patch of light onto the Earth about as bright as a full Moon. This first mirror is just a test. Reflect Orbital wants to launch 50,000 more by 2035, selling sunlight-on-demand to solar farms, construction sites and search-and-rescue teams.
If Reflect Orbital's plan is realized, it could be a calamity not only for astronomy but also for the natural world as a whole. Nocturnal animals and night-blooming plants, tuned by evolution to the rhythm of day and night, would suddenly find their darkness interrupted by moving pools of redirected sunlight. Small favors? Reflect Orbital says the light will not be bright enough to start fires.
The
FCC itself acknowledged some of these concerns, but said optical
astronomy and the environment lie largely outside its jurisdiction. They
can only regulate the project's use of radio signals. For now, no US
agency regulates how bright a satellite may shine.
The company's FCC application attracted more than 1,800 public comments, most of them sharply critical. Nevertheless, the launch of Eärendil-1 is now expected before the end of the year.
Stay tuned for too much sunlight.
Just to show that life is full of unexpected turns, on June 18, 1178, a group of medieval English monks threw a fine puzzle in the laps of astronomers that lingers to this day.
On that day, shortly after sunset, five monks at the abbey of the Christ Church of Canterbury (on the site of Canterbury Cathedral,) noticed that something very odd was happening in the sky. Gervase, who was Canterbury’s chronicler, provided the eyewitness record:
“The upper horn of the Moon split in two. From the midpoint of the division a flaming torch sprang up, spewing out, over a considerable distance, fire, hot coals and sparks. Meanwhile the body of the Moon which was below writhed, as it were in anxiety, and to put it in the words of those who reported it to me and saw it with their own eyes, the Moon throbbed like a wounded snake. Afterwards it resumed its proper state. This phenomenon was repeated a dozen times or more, the flame assuming various twisting shapes at random and then returning to normal. Then, after these transformations, the Moon from horn to horn, that is along its whole length, took on a blackish appearance.”
I am sure you are about to bring up the obvious question: What the hell happened? Go ahead and ask, but the answer you are likely to get from scientists is “Dunno.” In 1976, geologist Jack Hartung suggested that the monks observed a meteor impact on the Moon so massive that it caused molten matter (the “flaming torch”) to rise into space. Hartung pointed out that the Moon has a crater (named after Giordano Bruno,) that is possibly relatively young--perhaps young enough to date from June 18, 1178.
Alas for this delightfully brief and tidy answer, it is far from universally accepted. Other scientists have pointed out that an impact that huge would have had dramatic and impossible to ignore effects on Earth. It likely would have caused one of the biggest meteor showers in human history, observable all over the world for days afterwards. As far as we know, such spectacular showers were not recorded by the Canterbury monks, or anyone else on our planet for that matter. Additionally, in 2008 high-resolution images obtained by a Japanese satellite were used to give the Giordano Bruno crater an age of about 4 to 6 million years, which would obviously negate Hartung’s theory.
In 2001, a University of Arizona student named Paul Withers came up with a more elaborate scenario. He proposed that if, on that June night in 1178, a meteor came down to Earth and exploded right in front of the rising Moon, it could conceivably have appeared to the Canterbury witnesses that the Moon itself was erupting. This would be a rather remarkable astronomical coincidence, but not an impossible one. Unfortunately, this hypothesis can neither be proved or disproved.
So, what did those Canterbury monks observe? We’ll likely never know for sure, which is what charms me about our little historical footnote.
Aug 5, 2025, 12:03 PM | ||||
AS WE EXPECTED... a electric car in Florida in a garage caught fire when the salt water hit it during the hurricane
Mark Keenan
In Sweden there exists an electrified road for Electric Vehicles (EVs) to charge while driving[1]. The 2 km stretch of road is the world’s first of its kind, and an expansion of a further 3,000 km of electric road by 2045 is planned. It all sounds rather cool and futuristic, and I am reminded of a song lyric from the 1980s, the singer Eddie Grant sang “we’re gonna rock onto Electric Avenue”.
However, let us consider whether these expensive EVs are actually environmentally friendly or are yet mega-corporate marketing scam?
This article demonstrates that the latter is the case. The reality is that the misled environmentalists buying these cars are suckers for mega-corporate advertising, ignorantly proud of their so-called low-carbon eco-cars.
Debanking the truckers was exactly what Christyia Freeland,Trudeau's finance minister- did to break their demonstration against nonsensical covid restrictions
A new study conducted by researchers at the SETI Institute suggests that space weather conditions around stars could be hindering the detection of radio signals from extraterrestrial civilizations.
By Grant Stinchfield
He tapped Bill Pulte to serve as Acting Director of National Intelligence, and the reaction from the media, Democrats, and the intelligence establishment tells you everything you need to know. They are furious.
Why? Because Pulte is doing exactly what many Americans have demanded for years. He’s cleaning house.
Within days of taking over, reports indicate dozens of employees inside the Office of the Director of National Intelligence were either fired or sent packing as the administration moves to shrink what President Trump has called a bloated intelligence bureaucracy.
And here’s the kicker. Almost immediately, anti-Pulte leaks started pouring out of the intelligence community. The same people who claim to be defending democracy are running to the media to undermine the man tasked with reforming their agency. If there was ever proof that the swamp still exists, this is it.
To me, those leaks are not an argument against Bill Pulte. They’re the strongest argument for him.
The intelligence community was never supposed to operate as an independent power center. It exists to serve the American people, not protect itself. Yet every time someone comes along promising accountability, downsizing, and reform, the knives come out.
The media says Pulte is dangerous. Democrats say he’s unqualified. Washington insiders are panicking. Frankly, that makes me like the appointment even more.
Today, we break down why Bill Pulte may be exactly the deep state slayer President Trump was looking for, why the leaks prove the purge is necessary, and why the intelligence establishment is terrified of what could come next.
[…]
Via https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/06/how-deep-state-intel-community-usaid-stolen-elections/
I was in Seattle when this happened... sad
John Potash
April 5 marked the 32nd anniversary of former Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain’s death, supposedly from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
This past year, an unofficial private sector team of forensic scientists that put fresh eyes on Cobain’s autopsy and the crime scene material concluded that Cobain’s death actually resulted from a homicide. A Utah investigator who also recently reviewed the case says he has new evidence that shows that Kurt Cobain was murdered. [1]
Much suspicion surrounds Cobain’s former wife, Courtney Love, who has known ties to U.S. intelligence and is also known to have connections to the Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking network that operated as part of an intelligence-blackmail operation.👇
